UGA joins other schools in recycling competition

But wait 'til next year, say UGA organizers, who are trying to put a bit more mania into the university's annual "RecycleMania" competition.

"We're pretty excited. This has been the first year we've promoted RecycleMania on this scale," said UGA senior Claudia Langford, who watched as more than 100 students lined up this week for free T-shirts, refillable water containers and sandwiches from Subway - or to try out an inflatable obstacle course set up at Myers Hall Quad.

The annual RecycleMania contest pits UGA against hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide to see how much paper, glass, plastic and metal each school can recycle instead of burying in landfills.

Several events are planned over the next few weeks to boost on-campus recycling, said Langford, a student intern in the UGA Office of Sustainability.

Today, UGA workers will haul old scholarly journals and office paper from professors' offices at the end of "Clean Out Your Office" week.

And March 30, volunteers will conduct a very public waste audit at the Miller Learning Center, dumping out trash cans from the building on tarps spread outside to see how much of the discarded material could be recycled, said Langford, who helped plan the events.

Giving away free food and putting Miller Learning Center waste on public view may not boost UGA's RecycleMania standings, but Langford is taking the long view.

"My role is to plan education events (for the RecycleMania competition), which really is our main purpose," said Langford, an intern in the Office of Sustainability.

Realistically, UGA is not likely to crack the top 10, much less win the national competition, said Langford and Andrew Lentini, a coordinator in the Office of Sustainability.

"Schools with a big percentage of their students living on campus have a great advantage over us," Lentini said.

And some of the things that UGA effectively recycles, such as carpet and yard waste, are not counted in the standings, he said.

Little by little, the university is steadily edging up in the standings. UGA is on track to meet its goal of 200 tons of paper, glass, plastic and metal recycled by April 2 - up from 190 tons last year - and stands a good chance of defeating SEC rivals such as Florida and Alabama, Langford said.

Schools can win by simply recycling the most tons of material, or by recycling the highest amount per student.

A simple change in how trash cans are arranged in buildings may increase UGA's totals next year, Lentini said.

Later this semester, workers will place additional recycling containers in the Miller Learning Center - and place them right next to trash cans. That way, people won't have to search for a recycling bin, and in fact anyone who doesn't recycle will be doing it on purpose, consciously deciding not to.

Not many people will decide not to, Lentini believes.

"It's going to make all the difference in the world. It's going to give us a recycling rate of 85 percent, 90 percent," he said.

And if it works at Miller, UGA officials will start using the paired-receptacle approach elsewhere on campus, he said.

"As long as the pilot goes well, that will turn into the new campus standard," Lentini said. "That's going to make a big difference in the next RecycleMania."